Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Really nice place

We had a great trip. The staff was very friendly, the food was consistently good with a decent selection at the buffet for each meal. The nightly entertainment never disappointed. The hotel grounds and amenities were always kept very clean. The swim up bar was a great place to socialize while the oxygen pool was a great place to chill out. Really nice beach although it was very difficult to get chairs - even as early as 8am. Overall, a great experience.

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Fantastic Resort

This is definately one of my favorite resorts. I've travelled to different parts of Mexico on numerous occasions and found the Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda my favorite! The concierge , Sophie, will do everything she can to make your stay comfortable. The staff is friendly and efficient and any repair problems in your room are attended to immediately. The food is excellent, fresh jumbo grilled shrimp ( on the buffet!), filet mignon at the restaurants, as well as an abundance of fresh fruits and veget [... read more]ables! I shared a suite with my brother and sister in law, which had 2 large bathrooms and was beautifully maintained and cleaned daily. Carlos, our attendant created amazing sculptures made from towels and linens! There are 5 restaurants and 2 different pools to choose from. ( one is a quiet, more private area) There's something for everyone here, and I look forward to returning!

Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Once upon a time a 4 star...

I did this trip solo, and the price was decent. Trip advisor gave it a 4.7 star with over 7000 reviews... it raves about its “recent Reno’s”...in 2006.... all the pics were dated that were resort pics, like 2009, 2010... nothing recent except for some traveler ones. This resort was probably once a solid four star but the lack of upkeep is showing. The tiles are breaking all over the pool to the point of where it could be hazardous, the rooms are stained and out dated with cheap painted fur [... read more]niture. But with all that being said, I still had an amazing time. The staff were tremendous, the housekeepers were wonderful, the location on the beach was spectacular. The walkway to the beach is over a bridge in a bird and fish lagoon type thing. Beautiful. The food was decent, the alcohol wasn’t horrible, and the beach vendors were polite enough to walk away when you said no thank you (though they did come back to you at least 3-4 times a day... they see a lot of ppl. I’m sure they forget) I just want to be honest so that people aren’t expecting close to perfection, because this resort is not. But it has potential and they make up for in other ways. Some of my favourite staff, were Elvin in the buffet area, Rio and Frank at the beach bar, Waldo and Julio in the animation area. Wonderful people. Very accommodating. Personally I was fine with my room but I could see others not being impressed. The shower area wouldn’t drain while showering, hard water stains under the sink, cheap painted side tables and awkward decor. But it was perfect for a lone traveller. I met amazing people and noticed there was a great balance of young and older. I’m sure there were times where the older didn’t appreciate the younger but it all seemed to blend just fine. I highly recommend checking out, just have reasonable expectations.

Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Construction!

This hotel is right beside a huge, multi year construction project. So if you find jackhammers in concrete relaxing, please stay here. Resort was clean, but seemed understaffed. Our first room didn’t have linens. Towels were changed twice in the week, but once was just by leaving a bag of towels outside everyone’s door. I didn’t hang them up since it was very late, and the next day they had rehung my obviously dirty towels and taken the bag of clean ones. Bar service by the pool was terr [... read more]ible, beach was better. Speaking of the beach, the 7 cabanas with beds were always gone by 6:30am, and the cabanas with chairs gone by 7:30, so get up early if you want shade at the beach. The only espresso machine is at the cash bar, and isn’t available til 3pm. Some days there was a server with a coffee pot at breakfast, but generally it’s an instant vending type machine like at gas stations. Other than the pool bar, all the staff seemed very friendly.

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Nice Resort

Resort was nice. Rooms were good - could use a little TLC. Food was good and there was a variety of options to choose from. A la Carte reservations fill up by 8am. Pool chairs are taken early so it's hard to get a spot but the beach usually had some available. Shuttles don't come very often but it was easy to walk to pools/beaches/restaurants.

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Pretty good for the Price

The rooms and food were pretty good. The bar the black and white was one of the few things we didn’t like. Lots of walking to get to the beach but we didn’t mind. There’s a blue lagoon 15 min walk down the beach that is pretty awesome and free to see. Overall a good spot.

Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Relaxing Week

BlueBay is a small, older resort on a beautiful beach. For the size they offer a good variety of amenities. Rooms were clean. We had two beds pushed together as a ‘king’. No sitting area and one very little drawer for clothes, in the closet. Bathroom clean, new, but again, everything very small. Buffet had good selection, booked the 3 Ala Carte. Jade was our favourite. Staff consistently very warm and attentive. Several knew our names within the first day. Loved dancing to DJ musi [... read more]c at the beach restaurant. Construction noise (no fault of BB) annoying. Hard to hear the ocean waves over the sound of builders. Someone posted pics of a dirty/littered beach. Not sure where they were taken, the BB beach was cleaned daily of seaweed and debris. We loved walking along the ocean beach through the Playa Doradas complex and felt very safe. Vendors on the beach were respectful of a ‘No Gracias’, but we often had interesting conversations with the regulars. I had an amazing hour-long massage on the beach from Cecelia, for a third of the spa cost. Overall, relaxing week in the sun and sand: just what we wanted.

Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Great place, but.......

We had the 'superior' room and it was so lacking in storage. There was a small three drawer dresser in the closet that was maybe 24" high. No dresser in the room, nowhere to sit, no couch and worst of all two double beds in some sort of large bed joke. Even a Queen sized bed would have been ok but the two beds pushed together, fully separate sheets and blankets was a joke. Bathroom had virtually no counter space. ON a positive note, the food, grounds, pool, staff and virtually every aspect  [... read more]was great except for the room itself which was like 1 out of 10.

Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Rundown Resort

The whole place was rundown. Broken and uneven tiles to walk on around the resort, landscaping was neglected. I was disappointed from our rep from Trip Central saying it was comparable to an Iberostar, Not even close. They need to be honest and direct us to a proper resort that is comparable to where she asked us where we usually go.The buffet was not good food except when they has a Gala night at the buffet. Dry buns, bread and dessert, Always the same. The Al E Carts were okay. The resort was  [... read more]not nice to walk around, they are not maintaining the buildings or resort area. The pictures online are false advertising. When we checked in at our room the door was wide open, We were all disappointed when we walked into our rooms, bare and poor looking. Our air, TV and safe did not work. Busted shower head on the floor. Our friends rooms was not even cleaned but was checked into it. It took about 3 hours of sitting and waiting for someone to come and fix, but eventually they had us switch rooms. We had to beg for clean towels, soap, clean glasses (after cleaning they would turn our dirty glasses upside down) to look clean. We had the bare minimum. The pool was always noisy The stage was surrounding a lot of the rooms so it was hard to get away from the noise at night. We were told it was a quite place. Never going back

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: An excellent resort

The food was outstanding and service was always great. The format of the resort was nicely laid out. Plenty of room by the pools and a nice beach area close to the bars, bathrooms and restaurant. There was great entertainment every night.

Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Won't go back

This was my 5the visit to Puerto Plata and i will not be returning after this visit. Food was the same everyday, only 3 a la cartes which were so booked before we got there we didn't even get to visit them all. Rooms were sub par, clean but old and outdated. Walls paper thin and could hear the neighbors using their bathroom.

Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Get what you pay for.

If you are looking for a budget friendly resort, are not picky or demanding and just want to laze around then this resort will be fine. After booking I was told that this is a party resort. It is anything but. Pool activities are posted but don't always happen, and when they do, they are disorganized. I was only at the resort for 3 days as I had to fly back for a family emergency, but I have never been so bored or hungry at an all inclusive resort. I should have spent the extra money and gon [... read more]e back to Punta Cana, which is where we normally go. Pros: Most of the employees were very good to deal with. Beds were comfortable. No problem finding loungers by the pool. Resort was fairly quiet after 11pm. Cons: Resort is very dated. Many broken or missing tiles in and around the pools. Beach sand does have some sand flies. Food choice is very, very nominal. No mimosas. Recommendation: Go to Punta Cana. The money you save isn't worth it in the end.

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Beautiful resort!

Short review about our week at Blue Bay Grand Esmerelda in Riviera Maya January 2020. All in all a good vacation. Resort is very nice, with well maintained grounds and gardens. All personnel were friendly and gave excellent service. Food was excellent. One or two drawbacks: line up for food at the main buffet. You can only serve your self from one side of the buffet setup, resulting in a wait of 10 plus minutes for food, not to mention all the budinskis. Very inefficient. The beach:  [... read more]some sort of dredging operation going on in the water. So the water looks brown and dirty. No one is swimming in it. Your view is platforms and the wave barriers. Thumbs down to that. Also, some major ,very loud renovations going on so the quiet pool was not quiet. I think they played very hard driving nightclub music all day to cover over that. Wasn't ready to listen to that at 7:30 in the morning at the quiet pool buffet, so asked them to turn it down a bit. Was actually hard to find a quiet spot anywhere. So for those reasons I would not return.

Blue Bay Villas Doradas: A dump

This place is a dump,I am very disappointed with tripcentral whom we booked through. She said she has been to this resort,she asked where have we stayed before I named the resorts we have stayed the last 16 years. And she said ok you will like this place. She said it’s a very quite resort. It’s the noisy resort we have been to the last 16 years. We had 3 rooms, two of us they had to move because there was to many things that did not work and they could not fix, the 3rd room they fixed want w [... read more]as wrong. For excample the room we were first in ,the floor was really dirty,lipstick on the cup,air conditioner not working,big gap under the door any thing could crawl in,walls dirty and so on,2nd room dirty,safe not working,air not working,shower head laying on the floor in the bathroom in pieces,When they clean the rooms they don’t clean the floors,you have to find them to get clean towels,glasses and so on. All the furniture in the rooms is made out of plywood and painted white,nothing is ever fixed,they either leave it broken or patch it up,this place is a mess,don’t book here,cancel if you can,and be careful want the travel agent tells you about this place. The day we left the pool water look like milk,the buffet is very small,with no change in the food,if I could sent you some pictures of this place you could see what this place is like. Out of all the people we talked to there just two people said they liked this place,and they said they have always booked the cheapest resorts possible. Out of 16 years of travelling to resorts this is the first time I have did a review on one,there is always going to be some good and bad at each resort,this one is all bad,I could could say many more things about the dump.

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Enjoyable Experience

Grounds, pools, rooms were clean. Food was great, excellent variety of fresh fruit and veggies. Italian and Steakhouse were amazing. Overall good service. Beach good for walking but water murky with seaweed in front of resort so not good for swimming. Swam in the lagoon just down the beach very clean.

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Disappointed

I would not recommend this hotel to anyone. There is a nice pool area but the beach area is less than expected and the ocean water is on swimmable. There is a lagoon about 15 minutes away that’s beautiful but if you have any issues with mobility you would not get to see this lagoon. They have a policy at this hotel that you have to be there at 7 Am To reserve for the à la cart restaurants. This is absolutely absurd to have to wake up at six in the morning to reserve a meal for the next day an [... read more]d you can only do one for the next day. I say 6 AM because this hotel is spread across quite a distance and you need to walk from one place to the other which can take about 15 minutes . For anybody with mobility issues and or an injury or disability this hotel is a nightmare. I found many areas where it was not well lit and dangerous for all ages and even the main pathway was not lit in the early morning hours when you’re trying to go to a excursion. The staff are friendly and do react quickly in an emergency situation. This is a positive. However the bathrooms near the pool and beach area are extremely dangerous and slippery and there are no hooks behind the bathroom stall doors to put your belongings. I did appreciate the automatic flush , Sink and paper towels to keep illness at a lower level. The fact that this hotel only has one place to go late at night on the beach is unbelievable because they have a beautiful black-and-white bar that is semi indoors that could be used when the weather is unfavorable. The nightly shows were overtaken by the backdrop And constant video that runs over the dancers and performers which is very distracting as well as the music system not being of high-quality. The French restaurant had the best food and service. The other food is good but the Buffay does become a little bit monotonous. After making a Written complaint they did try to accommodate us by upgrading us to a suite and by allowing us to book all our à la cart restaurants at one time. This was very kind of them however it was a little too late as my three friends and I were already very disappointed with our experience for the first few days. My friends had no air conditioning for three days in their room. The Jacuzzi in the updated suites was small and almost on functionable. I would not recommend this hotel to anyone I will not return to this hotel. They do have a shuttle that goes to and from playa Del Carmen but the last shuttle returning is at 6 PM so if you want to go into town to experience the nightlife you need to take a $25 taxi ride to playa Del Carmen and a $25 taxi ride back which is not so great if you’re on a budget. The fact that the very first morning they called us three times in our room Around 8 o’clock in the morning was ludicrous. I’m post to be on vacation and I was having to get up earlier than I do for work at home. This was frustrating. I could continue with many many more observations and criticisms of this hotel but for the most part please don’t send anybody there. Thank you for your time and energy.

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Magnifique hôtel

C’est la deuxième année que nous allons à cet hotel. Nous y avons passé 9 jours l’an passé et 14 jours cette année. L’attente au buffet est plus que mauvais 30min pour se servir.Sinon tout est parfait

Blue Bay Villas Doradas: overall great experience

The staff are genuinely friendly and helpful. The beach was good but not the best as there was heavy waves which only allowed us to be fairly close to the shore. Rooms were very clean and comfortable. What I was disappointed in was the food. options were limited at the buffet, so although i always did find one or two things that i liked, i never felt satisfied after eating. The friend chicken at the snack bar was sometimes a bit stale. Overall i had a great experience and was dissapointed with t [... read more]he food which was very limited and didnt have the the best flavour.

Blue Bay Villas Doradas: Small Resort

This was a small resort. It was very nice that it had three different pools but all were shallow. The rooms were clean but dated and the beds were hard. All of the staff were very friendly and helpful. Each carrier seemed to different services, some people had to pay for internet and for some it was included. I would recommend to travel with Air transat if going to this resort

Blue Bay Grand Esmeralda: Ok resort but beach isn’t nice

This is a very large and accommodating resort. 2 big pools. Depending on which building you are in, it’s a long walk to beach and main pool. The most disappointing aspect of this resort is it’s on a man made lagoon that has very shallow mud beach. It’s not the Playa del Carmen beach you imagine. And you can’t swim far as it’s protected by barriers. Also the food was pretty mediocre as was the main bar that’s not open air, and had low ceiling and fluorescent lighting. The resort grou [... read more]nds are nice and lush and staff very good. Also nice that is big if you like to walk. But there is no quiet shady area to nap or hang by pool - always music on from 9 am. So if you want a more relaxed environment with a nice beach, would look elsewhere. Lots of activists for kids and by the pool.